Southern California -- this just in

Ex-detective accused of rape to blame antidepressant for attack

May 14, 2012 | 9:44
am

A former Westminster police detective accused of kidnapping a woman from Ontario Mills mall in 2010 and raping her at gunpoint will try to convince a jury Monday that he was under the influence of an antidepressant and therefore not responsible for his actions.

Anthony Nicholas Orban faces kidnapping and rape charges in the attack on a 25-year-old waitress who was abducted while leaving work. Opening statements in the case were scheduled to begin Monday morning in a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom.

Prosecutors and investigators say Orban kidnapped the woman in the parking lot and then forced her to drive to a commercial complex in Fontana, where he raped her. The woman managed to escape during the attack and alert authorities.

According to Ontario police, Orban had a friend, Jeff Thomas Jelinek, a corrections officer at the Chino Institution for Men, pick him up and drive him back to the mall. However, Orban left his police service weapon in the victim’s car, which Ontario police later recovered.

Jelinek in 2011 pleaded guilty to being an accessory to a crime and agreed to testify against Orban.

[Updated at 9:56 a.m.: Orban was taking the antidepressant Zoloft at the time of the attack.]